2023 Spring Semester

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Composition courses that offer many sections (ENGL 101, 201, 277 and 379) are not listed on this schedule unless they are tailored to specific thematic content or particularly appropriate for specific programs and majors.

• 100-200 level

ENGL 201.03 Composition II—Do Stories Make Us Human?

MWF 9:00-9:50am

Dr. Katherine Malone

In this course, you will hone your critical thinking, writing, and research skills as we explore the role of storytelling in everyday life. How do we use narrative to understand the world around us? How do stories shape our view of self and others? What effect does reading have on an individual’s body, mind, or morals? Are we moving toward a post-literate society in which images and memes supplant the written word, or does reading occupy an essential role in what we call the human experience? We will approach these questions through a range of disciplines, including literary criticism, cultural studies, philosophy, history, sociology, and neuroscience. Through our course reading, you will strengthen your skills in analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing complex arguments. And through our discussions, research, and writing assignments, you will become adept at constructing and supporting persuasive arguments of your own.

ENGL 201 Composition II—Sports Writing  

S02 MWF 9:00-9:50am

S06 MWF 10:00-10:50am

S10 MWF 11:00-11:50am 

Amber Jensen, M.A., M.F.A 

This course will focus on the study of and practice in writing persuasive prose, with the aim to improve writing skills in all disciplines. Students will read selections from The Best American Sports Writing as examples of research-driven, persuasive prose and will analyze the rhetorical choices the author of each text makes and how those choices enhance argument and purpose. This reading and analysis will inform students' own rhetorical choices as they write their own research-driven, persuasive essays. Throughout the writing process, students will also create an annotated bibliography and write two reflective narratives that encourage reflection on their learning and writing so that students leave the course with a deepened understanding of the process of research and writing and the rhetorical choices they will make as writers in their future personal and professional writing. 

ENGL 201.S15 Composition II—Monsters

Tu Th 9:30-10:45am

April Myrick

This course builds upon those reading and writing competencies acquired in English 101 by developing further your ability to conduct research and to structure and extend an argument. Through a variety of course readings, students will examine the concept of monsters, both literal and metaphorical, through a variety of lenses, from science and technology to psychology and anthropology. Our readings and class discussions (as well as the essays you write for this course) will explore the following questions: Why do we need monsters? How do monsters reflect the fears and experiences of a specific culture or time period? In what ways can humans be monsters?  In addition to the major essays, students will also create short reflection papers and an annotated bibliography that allow them to better understand the writing process and their own rhetorical choices. 

ENGL 201.18 Honors Composition II—Writing the Environment

Tu Th 12:30-1:45pm

Dr. Paul Baggett

For generations, environmentalists have relied on the power of prose to change the minds and habits of their contemporaries. In the wake of fires, floods, storms, and droughts, environmental writing has gained a new sense of urgency, with authors joining activists in their efforts to educate the public about the grim realities of climate change. But do they make a difference? Have reports of present and future disasters so saturated our airwaves that we no longer hear them? How do writers make us care about the planet amidst all the noise? In this course, students will examine the various rhetorical strategies employed by some of today’s leading environmental writers and filmmakers. And while analyzing their different arguments, students also will strengthen their own strategies of argumentation as they research and develop essays that explore a range of environmental concerns. 

ENGL 210.ST1 Introduction to Literature

Online

Darin Halvorsen

Readings in fiction, drama and poetry to acquaint students with literature and aesthetic form. Prerequisites: ENGL 101. Notes: Course meets SGR #4 or IGR #3. *****THIS IS LAST YEAR—SAME CLASS??****

ENGL 221.S01 British Literature I

Tu Th 12:30-1:45pm

Dr. Sharon Smith

A chronological survey of British literature from Old English through the 18th century.

ENGL 240.ST1: Juvenile Literature (Young Adult)

Online

Jenny Kluck

This course will focus on children’s literature from birth through 5th grade. In addition to studying the history of children’s literature, students will learn about and read various genres of children’s literature, such as picture books, fairy tales, historical fiction and realistic fiction. We will spend most of our class time discussing the assigned literature and corresponding textbook chapters.  

ENGL 240.ST2 Juvenile Literature (Elementary-5th Grade)

Online

April Myrick

A survey of the history of literature written for children and adolescents, and a consideration of the various types of juvenile literature. Notes: Course meets SGR #4. 

ENGL 242.S01 American Literature II

Tu Th 11:00am-12:15pm

Dr. Jason McEntee

Background to and survey of major works from the Civil War to the present. ENGL 241 and 242 need not be taken in sequence.

ENGL 283.S01 Introduction to Creative Writing 

MWF 1:00-1:50pm

Amber Jensen, M.A., M.F.A 

This course explores creative writing as a way of encountering the world, research as a component of the creative writing process, elements of craft and their rhetorical effect, and drafting, workshop, and revision as integral parts of writing polished literary creative work. Student writers will engage in the research practices that inform the writing of literature and in the composing strategies and writing process writers use to create literary texts. Through their reading and writing of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, students will learn about craft elements, find examples of those craft elements in published works, and apply these elements in their own creative work, developed through weekly writing activities, small group and large group workshop, and conferences with the instructor. Work will be submitted, along with a learning reflection and revision plan in each genre and will then be revised and submitted as a final portfolio at the end of the semester to demonstrate continued growth in the creation of polished literary writing. 

ENGL 284.01: Introduction to Criticism

Tu Th 2:00-3:15pm

Dr. Paul Baggett

This course introduces students to selected traditions of literary and cultural theory and to some of the key issues that animate discussion among literary scholars today. These include questions about the production of cultural value, about ideology and hegemony, about the patriarchal and colonial bases of Western culture, and about the status of the cultural object, of the cultural critic, and of cultural theory itself.

To address these and other questions, we will survey the history of literary theory and criticism (a history spanning 2500 years) by focusing upon a number of key periods and -isms:  Greek and Roman Classicism, The Middle Ages and Renaissance, The Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Formalism, Historicism, Political Criticism (Marxism, Post-Colonialism, Feminism, et al.), and Psychological Criticism.  We also will “test” various theories we discuss by examining how well they account for and help us to understand various works of poetry and fiction.

• 300-level

ENGL 330.S01 Shakespeare

Tu Th 2:00-3:15pm

Drs. M. Nagy

This course will focus on William Shakespeare’s poetic and dramatic works and on the cultural and social contexts in which he wrote them.  In this way, we will gain a greater appreciation of the fact that literature does not exist in a vacuum, for it both reflects and influences contemporary and subsequent cultures.

Text: The Riverside Shakespeare: Complete Works. Ed. Evans, G. Blakemore and J. J. M. Tobin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

ENGL 363.S01 Mythology

Tu Th 9:30-10:45am 

Dr. M. Nagy and G. Wrightson

Modern society’s fascination with mythology manifests itself in the continued success of novels, films, and television programs about mythological or quasi-mythological characters such as Hercules, the Fisher King, and Gandalf the Grey, all of whom are celebrated for their perseverance or their daring deeds in the face of adversity.  This preoccupation with mythological figures necessarily extends back to the cultures which first propagated these myths in early folk tales and poems about such figures as Oðin, King Arthur, Rhiannon, Gilgamesh, and Odysseus, to name just a few.  English 363, a reading-intensive course cross-listed with History 363, primarily aims to expose students to the rich tradition of mythological literature written in languages as varied as French, Gaelic, Welsh, Old Icelandic, Greek, and Sumerian; to explore the historical, social, political, religious, and literary contexts in which these works flourished (if indeed they did); and to grapple with the deceptively simple question of what makes these myths continue to resonate with modern audiences. Likely topics and themes of this course will include: Theories of myth; Mythological Beginnings: Creation myths and the fall of man; Male and Female Gods in Myth; Foundation myths; Nature Myths; The Heroic Personality; the mythological portrayal of (evil/disruptive) women in myth; and Monsters in myth.

Possible Texts:

• Dalley, Stephanie, trans. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Oxford World’s Classics, 2009
• Faulkes, Anthony, trans. Edda.  Everyman, 1995              
• Gregory, Lady Augusta. Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. Forgotten Books, 2007
• Jones, Gwyn, Thomas Jones, and Mair Jones. The Mabinogion. Everyman Paperback Classics, 1993
• Larrington, Carolyne, trans.  The Poetic Edda.  Oxford World’s Classics, 2009
• Matarasso, Pauline M., trans.  The Quest of the Holy Grail. Penguin Classics, 1969
• Apollodorus, Hesiod’s Theogony
• Hesiod’s Works and Days
• Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Homeric Hymns 
• Virgil’s Aeneid
• Iliad, Odyssey
• Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 
• Ovid’s Heroides
• Greek tragedies: Orestaia, Oedipus trilogy, Trojan Women, Medea, Hippolytus, Frogs, Seneca's Thyestes, Dyskolos, Amphitron

Movies:

• Clash of the Titans 
• Hercules
• Jason and the Argonauts
• Troy (and recent miniseries) 
• Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

ENGL 379.ST4 Technical Communication for Biology & Microbiology

Online

April Myrick

This section of English 379 is the second of a sequence for Biology and Microbiology students. In this course, students will draft and polish job- or program-seeking documents including a resume. Students will improve their information literacy via discipline-based research. Students will also devote a significant portion of the semester to analyzing and organizing their BIOL490 research for writing and presentation via a number of platforms and mediums (such as scholarly journal article, traditional presentation, informative poster, and multimedia) and for both technical and lay audiences.  

ENGL 379.S05 Technical Communication for Biology & Microbiology

Tu Th 8:00-9:15am 

Lisa Madsen 

This section of English 379 is the second of a sequence for Biology and Microbiology students. In this course, students will draft and polish job- or program-seeking documents including a resume. Students will improve their information literacy via discipline-based research. Students will also devote a significant portion of the semester to analyzing and organizing their BIOL490 research for writing and presentation via a number of platforms and mediums (such as scholarly journal article, traditional presentation, informative poster, and multimedia) and for both technical and lay audiences.  

ENGL 383.01 Creative Writing I

MWF 2:00-2:50pm

Prof. Steven Wingate

Creative Writing I focuses on strengthening poetry, creative nonfiction and/or fiction writing skills by developing longer/more complex projects. The class allows students to explore each genre through the processes of writing and revising creative texts, with an emphasis on applying craft concepts across genres and throughout the writing process. Students will engage in large-group writing workshops but will also develop their work through their own revision and reflection, presented in a creative writing portfolio. Students will also choose one genre of emphasis, which they will explore through self-select texts, which they will analyze and use to deepen their understanding of the genre and to contextualize their own creative work. (Note: ENGL 383 is an elective and does not fulfill an IGR or SGR credit.)

• 400-level

ENGL 491.S01: Undergraduate Peer Tutoring

Independent Study

Dr. Nathan Serfling

Since their beginnings in the 1920s and 30s, writing centers have come to serve a number of functions: as hubs for writing across the curriculum initiatives, sites to develop and deliver workshops and resource centers for faculty as well as students, among other functions. But the primary function of writing centers has necessarily and rightfully remained the tutoring of student writers. This course will immerse you in that function in two parts. During the first four weeks, you will explore writing center praxis - that is, the dialogic interplay of theory and practice related to writing center work. This part of the course will orient you to writing center history, key theoretical tenets and practical aspects of writing center tutoring. Once we have developed and practiced this foundation, you will begin work in the writing center as tutors, responsible for assisting a wide variety of student clients with numerous writing tasks. Through this work, you will learn to actively engage with student clients in the revision of a text, respond to different student needs and abilities, work with a variety of writing tasks and rhetorical situations and develop a richer sense of writing as a complex and negotiated social process. Prerequisites: Students wishing to enroll in this course must be of junior or senior standing and needs to provide the name of a School of English and Interdisciplinary Studies faculty member who will serve as a reference for them.

ENGL 491.S02 Literary Publishing Practicum

Independent Study

Prof. Steven Wingate  

A hands-on, semester-long introduction to literary publishing centered on, but not limited to, the production of SDSU's literary journal Oakwood, founded in 1976. Our work will involve soliciting, editing, producing and promoting the magazine, as well as an overview of the publishing industry and an opportunity to craft a publishing resume.  This class will give you demonstrable experience with workplace practices applicable in fields from editing to corporate communications. It will be conducted as an independent study course, though we will arrange for common meeting times both online and in-person based on the schedules of those involved.

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GRADUATE COURSES

ENGL 704.01 Introduction to Graduate Studies

Wednesdays 3:00-5:50pm

Dr. Paul Baggett

Introduction to Graduate Studies is required of all first-year graduate students. The primary purpose of this course is to introduce students to modern and contemporary literary theory and its applications. Students will write short response papers and will engage at least one theoretical approach in their own fifteen- to twenty-page scholarly research project. In addition, this course will further introduce students to the M.A. program in English at South Dakota State University and provide insight into issues related to the profession of English studies.

ENGL 729.01 Victorian Magazines and Popular Fiction

Thursday 3:00-5:50pm

Dr. Katherine Malone

Many of the Victorian novels we now consider classics first appeared serially in magazines. Alongside the latest instalment of a serial novel by Charles Dickens or Elizabeth Gaskell, readers might find articles on exotic travel or colonial rebellion, evolutionary theory or religious doctrine, the expansion of the railway or tips for managing an expanding household. In this course, we'll read six novels in their original periodical context to discover the vast and complex network of ideas that their first audiences were enmeshed in. Using digital archives, we'll turn the pages of Victorian magazines to explore how serial format, page layout, illustrations, advertisements, and other periodical features influenced the form of the novel. We'll also conduct reception histories to consider how reviewers and critics have responded to these novels at different times and in different places. Besides reading a lot of fun popular fiction and journalism, you will deepen your understanding of Victorian literature and culture, sharpen your critical reading and writing skills, learn specialized research methods in periodical studies and book history, and develop pedagogical strategies. Assignments include short reports, in-class presentations, and a final research paper.

ENGL 791.01: Literary Publishing Practicum

Independent Study

Prof. Steven Wingate  

A hands-on, semester long introduction to literary publishing centered on, but not limited to, the production of SDSU's literary journal Oakwood, founded in 1976. Our work will involve soliciting, editing, producing and promoting the magazine, as well as an overview of the publishing industry and an opportunity to craft a publishing resume.  This class will give you demonstrable experience with workplace practices applicable in fields from editing to corporate communications. It will be conducted as an independent study course, though we will arrange for common meeting times both in person and online based on the schedules of those involved. Please note that both in-person and online M.A. students can enroll in this course.

Graduate students will work side-by-side with undergraduates enrolled in ENGL 491 but with a different grading rubric and set of responsibilities, including a presentation and/or written research report on a publishing topic developed by the student. 

ENGL 792.ST1 Technical and Professional Writing

Online 

Amber Jensen, M.A., M.F.A 

This online course is designed to teach students to write effectively and strategically within their professional context, with an emphasis on the scholarly and grant writing needs in the profession. Students will research their professional community’s writing context, including its standards and practices, and will produce a variety of professional documents, including research and grant proposals, reflective annotations, informal reports, and an academic presentation. In doing so, they will improve their understanding of rhetoric and the ways in which their writerly choices effect the accessibility and usability of writing in a professional and scholarly context.